Sent from my penis using wankertalk."The Western world is fucking awesome because of mostly white men" - DaveDodo007. "Socialized medicine is just exactly as morally defensible as gassing and cooking Jews" - Seth. Yes, he really did say that.."Seth you are a boon to this community" - Cunt. "You know you blokes didn't criticize Obama. You're lying. - Forty Two. Umm - http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=42144

`Oumuamua, the first interstellar object discovered in the Solar System, is moving away from the Sun faster than expected. This anomalous behavior was detected by a worldwide astronomical collaboration. The new results suggest that `Oumuamua is most likely an interstellar comet and not an asteroid.

[T]he first interstellar object discovered within our Solar System ... has been the subject of intense scrutiny since its discovery in October 2017 [1]. Now, by combining data from the ESO's Very Large Telescope and other observatories, an international team of astronomers has found that the object is moving faster than predicted. The measured gain in speed is tiny and `Oumuamua is still slowing down because of the pull of the Sun -- just not as fast as predicted by celestial mechanics.

The team, led by Marco Micheli (European Space Agency) explored several scenarios to explain the faster-than-predicted speed of this peculiar interstellar visitor. The most likely explanation is that `Oumuamua is venting material from its surface due to solar heating -- a behaviour known as outgassing [2]. The thrust from this ejected material is thought to provide the small but steady push that is sending `Oumuamua hurtling out of the Solar System faster than expected -- as of 1 June 2018 it is traveling at roughly 114,000 kilometres per hour.

Such outgassing is a behaviour typical for comets and contradicts the previous classification of `Oumuamua as an interstellar asteroid. "We think this is a tiny, weird comet," commented Marco Micheli. "We can see in the data that its boost is getting smaller the farther away it travels from the Sun, which is typical for comets."

Usually, when comets are warmed by the Sun they eject dust and gas, which form a cloud of material -- called a coma (cometary) -- around them, as well as the characteristic tail . However, the research team could not detect any visual evidence of outgassing.

"We did not see any dust, coma, or tail, which is unusual," explained co-author Karen Meech of the University of Hawaii, USA. Meech led the discovery team's characterisation of `Oumuamua in 2017. "We think that 'Oumuamua may vent unusually large, coarse dust grains."

The team speculated that perhaps the small dust grains adorning the surface of most comets eroded during `Oumuamua's journey through interstellar space, with only larger dust grains remaining. Though a cloud of these larger particles would not be bright enough to be detected, it would explain the unexpected change to 'Oumuamua's speed.

Sent from my penis using wankertalk."The Western world is fucking awesome because of mostly white men" - DaveDodo007. "Socialized medicine is just exactly as morally defensible as gassing and cooking Jews" - Seth. Yes, he really did say that.."Seth you are a boon to this community" - Cunt. "You know you blokes didn't criticize Obama. You're lying. - Forty Two. Umm - http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=42144

The thing spots life on earth and wakes up. All its alarms go off as it scans us. 'Life' it shouts (to itself) and beams a huge packet of data to its home world...240 light years away.

The aliens in question have well developed space travel, but as we know it is impossible to go faster than light - it seems. Clever chaps they are they can travel at 50% the speed of light though.

They send off a 'welcome to the Commonwealth of Interstellar Whizz kids' welcome party. which arrived 480 years later.

720 years after the fly by.

Speeding up on leaving isn't necessary unless it's going somewhere close. Why risk accidental detection by Earthlings? Very likely that is a forward scout and the larger, much larger, scavenger ship is quite near. Within a couple of years travel. The likely prize is this planets atmosphere.

Sent from my penis using wankertalk."The Western world is fucking awesome because of mostly white men" - DaveDodo007. "Socialized medicine is just exactly as morally defensible as gassing and cooking Jews" - Seth. Yes, he really did say that.."Seth you are a boon to this community" - Cunt. "You know you blokes didn't criticize Obama. You're lying. - Forty Two. Umm - http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=42144